Lesson #2: Unlimited Bandwidth/Data Transfer - Proceed with Caution

Last Update: September 25, 2013

In Lesson #1, we spoke about Shared Hosting and if it is right hosting option for you. Most likely, like 99% of all websites, shared hosting is the best fit for you website. However, in this lesson, you will learn a few important things like what Unlimited Bandwidth/Disk Transfer and Unlimited Disk Space really mean and a few other things you need to know, so you don't get your shared hosting account suspended or terminated.
 

You will find many web hosts use the terms bandwidth and data transfer interchangeably, which can be confusing. Simply put, bandwidth is a rate; data transfer is a total. Bandwidth is measured in bytes per second; data transfer is measured in bytes per month.

Usually, web hosting plans are based on the amount of data you can transfer to and from the host’s servers in one month.
 

Unlimited Bandwidth/Data Transfer Illustration:

Try to imagine bandwidth as a freeway, with data as the vehicles, or traffic, on that freeway. Obviously, a wider freeway has the capacity to transfer more vehicles in a given time period, resulting in a smoother flow of traffic. A web hosts with high bandwidth can transfer more data per second, so your website will load faster.

As you may have already seen, most web hosts advertise unlimited bandwidth or data transfer on their web sites. But think about it, just as no freeway can be infinitely wide or move unlimited number of vehicles in one month, no web host provider can really offer unlimited bandwidth and data transfer. This is especially true when it comes to peak hours.

What they're really saying is ‘we are pretty sure we have more bandwidth than you’ll need.’

If a host is offering unlimited bandwidth, make sure to read the fine print. Everything has limits!

Some hosts will suspend or terminate a customer’s website without any warning or refund if their limits are exceeded.

Same goes with the unlimited disk space. What they are really saying is ‘we are pretty sure we have enough space for you to run a fully-functional personal or small business website.’ Please remember that you should never use your web hosting account’s space as a storage for your personal or business computer files. It’s against the web host's rules!

Here is the example of what "Unlimited" really means:

In this example, we will use iPage.com, a shared hosting provider we reccommend to our visitors:

This is the key sentence:

“...we do require all customers to be fully compliant with our Terms of Service and utilize disk space and bandwidth in the normal operation of a personal or small business website.”

And then there is a graph that explains the “normal usage”:


 

Have you noticed that 99.95% of all customers fall under the Normal Usage and only .05% fall under the Abnormally High Usage?

Or, in terms of customers, out of every 10,000 customers 9,995 fall under the Normal Usage and only 5 fall under the Abnormally High usage.

Do they explain who are five Abnormally-High-Usage customers?

Yes they do. They state that, typically, those are the customers who use their accounts for file storage and sharing rather than hosting.

Nice thing about iPage is that they don’t hide this information in the Terms of Service or fine print, but it’s easily accessible from their homepage. Also, they generally give 48-hour warning before taking the violating account down. That’s another reason we recommend them as #1 shared hosting option!

Lesson #2 Conclusion:

Is there a such thing as Unlimited Bandwidth/Data Transfer and Unlimited Disk Space?

Absolutely not!

Just as no freeway can be infinitely wide or move unlimited number of vehicles in one month, no web hosting provider can really offer unlimited bandwidth and data transfer.

What they are really saying is ‘we are pretty sure we have more bandwidth and disk space than you’ll need to host a fully functional personal or small business website.’

Recommendations: If you’re planning to stream videos from your website, we recommend that you host them on YouTube or Vimeo and just embed them to your website. You will notice that most web sites use this method to make sure they don’t end up falling under the Abnormally High Usage.